The Phillies offense nearly didn't have to show up last night as Hamels came within an out of recording his third shutout of the season. He already has two shutouts on the season. I'm ready to say he's their most dominant pitcher since Steve Carlton. He's already right there with Curt Schilling.
Hamels is their franchise pitcher and in a little over two years he's elevated himself to the top 3 of pitchers in the majors and may be the best. He is to the Phillies what Dwight Gooden was to the Mets in the 80's, Clemens was to the Sox in the 80's and early 90's, and Randy Johnson to the M's and Dbacks.
It's a damn shame that the rest of the Phillies rotation has more question marks than Pat's cheesesteaks has bottles of whiz. I like Kyle Kendrick as a number three and when his sinker is on, he's nearly unhittable. Jamie Moyer keeps them in games, but don't expect more than 6 innings or 100 pitches (whichever comes first). Adam Eaton is a number five and in that role he's doing fine, but don't expect a whole lot. And, Brett Myers is a trainwreck. He could be done in Philly. The next 18 days (the rest of his scheduled stint in the minors) will decide if he comes back to the rotation, bullpen, or he's shipped out of town.
Word is, the Phillies are hot after the Mariners' Erik Bedard. While he's certainly a front-line pitcher, one disturbing thing about him is that he puts himself on a pitch count and takes himself out of games. Even with that baggage I'll take him over an ineffective Brett Myers.
At this point I'm not opposed to moving Ryan Howard for a top-notch starting pitcher. I'd be on the phones with the Giants and see if a Howard for Lincecum swap would do it. Or, talk to the braves about trading him for Texeira and Jair Jurrjens-who pitched last night. Jurrjens has ace potential and while he didn't have his best game last night, he entered the game with a better ERA than Hamels and more wins. And, his strikeouts/inning ratio is superb. Texeira would give the Phillies an excellent replacement for Howard who doesn't strike out nearly as much, hits for power, and hits for a high average. And, he won't kill you with errors either.
I know I'm being harsh on Howard, but it's either homer or strikeout for him and a few doubles. He's not half the hitter he was two years ago when he was hitting the ball to different parts of the field and hitting over .300. He's now become the equivalent of Dave Kingman and playing poor defense. I'll take his power numbers and RBI numbers anyday, but is that really worth close to $20 million of a year over the long-run, which is what he'll command?
What would you rather have; a player like Howard or a stud starting pitcher to go along with Hamels and a stud first basemen like Texeria. The only problem is my scenario has them dealing with a division rival so they may have to trade Howard in another deal (i.e. to the Giants for Lincecum) and sign Texeria when he becomes a free agent.
J.A. Happ takes the hill tonight against Johan Santana. I think it was a dumb move starting Hamels last night. They should have brought Happ up last night to start because they already had the series in the bag. Now, you're putting Happ in a pressure situation against the Mets' ace in a big series. That's a lot to throw on a pitcher's shoulders, who has just one major league career start on his resume.
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